Initially it seems odd, in the light of exhaustive reissues such as the Mosaic set of Herman's 1945-47 bands, to see this resurrection of a mid-1950s compilation consisting of just 12 tracks. Yet, in the age of discovering single items online, perhaps it makes sense to have a small taste of what the fuss was all about. The First Herd that broke up in 1946 (with stars such as Flip Phillips and Bill Harris) and its successor, formed the following year and featuring Getz and Zoot Sims, had big hits on Columbia that still pack a significant punch, such as ‘Caldonia’, ‘The Good Earth’ and ‘Four Brothers’. When the Third Herd was founded in 1952, at the same time as Herman formed his own record label, he leased some new material to Columbia and was granted his first-ever 12-inch L P. Incidentally, the booklet details have goofed in claiming ‘Early Autumn’ as the 1947 one originally called ‘Summer Sequence Pt. IV’ with Getz – surprising too, since they reprint Woody's lengthy notes that devote a whole paragraph to explaining this was a 1954 version with Bill Perkins. Recommended, especially for newcomers.